Alexander Volkanovski wanted Charles Oliveira to beat Islam Makhachev for surprising reason 

Alexander Volkanovski volunteered to be the back-up fighter for the UFC 280 lightweight title fight between Islam Makhachev and Charles Oliveira last year. 'The Great' has aspirations of becoming a two-division champion, and recently admitted that he wanted Oliveira to defeat Makhachev for selfish reasons.

According to Volkanovski, he felt that if Makhachev won the belt, he would take more time off before defending his title. Whereas 'The Great' was confident that Oliveira would want to defend his title as soon as possible.

Given that Volkanovski was in the running to face the winner of Makhachev vs. Oliveira, he wasn't keen to wait around for the next lightweight champion.

During a recent interview with Mark Bouris on Straight Talk with Mark Bouris, Alexander Volkanovski stated:

"Before [UFC 280] I originally thought, 'I think I'd rather have Charles Oliveira winning.' Because I know I'd fight him soon. I didn't think Islam would. I thought he would probably hold the belt for a while, and wouldn't be able to fight for a while. I was thinking, 'I might have to fight [Oliveira] in Brazil, but at least it'll be soon.' And then [Makhachev] won and called me out and wanted to fight in Australia."

Watch the interview below from 5:45:

Alexander Volkanovski faced Islam Makhachev in the main event of UFC 284, and was defeated via decision in a close fight. But the nature of the fight has opened talks of a rematch at some point, with both fighters agreeing to a possible second fight.

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Dana White wants Alexander Volkanovski to fight Yair Rodriguez next

Yair Rodriguez was crowned the interim-featherweight champion in the co-main event of UFC 284.

According to UFC President Dana White, 'El Pantera' is now set to face Alexander Volkanovski to unify the titles. White was asked about the possibility of an immediate rematch between Volkanovski and Makhachev following their epic clash at UFC 284. However, the UFC president appears eager for both fighters to face other opponents before potentially organizing a rematch.

White appeared in front of the media following UFC Fight Night 219 last weekend, and said this:

"We didn't make any fights yet, there are a lot of different things that play out in making these fights. Timing, injuries, personal stuff. But yeah, to me, the fight that makes sense is to make Yair vs. Volkanovski and Islam vs. somebody, whenever that happens. And then you do the rematch."

Watch the video below: